Energy harvesting – creating electrical energy from cars driving over a road, or people walking on a bridge – has long been theorized as a potential source of sustainable electricity. But due to the physical properties of those vibrations, implementing the process has been largely infeasible. Now, a Purdue researcher has proposed using metamaterials as physical frequency converters, potentially bringing us a step closer to harvesting the energy of those vibrations.

A team led by Purdue's Center for High Performance Buildings (CHPB) has received a grant to develop a novel electrochemical heat pump technology, with the potential to outperform conventional vapor compression systems and enable the next generation of heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, and refrigeration (HVAC&R) equipment.

Prof. Chi Hwan Lee has developed a soft contact lens with bioinstrumentation tools, capable of unobtrusively monitoring patients for ocular diseases like glaucoma.

Joe D. Hoffman, who taught at Purdue Mechanical Engineering for 38 years and directed the Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories, passed away on February 13, 2021.

Steven F. Son, the Alfred J. McAllister Professor of Mechanical Engineering, has been elected as a 2021 Fellow of the Combustion Institute, "for leading experimental studies of the combustion and decomposition processes in condensed phase and novel energetic materials."

Blood vessels are a unique subject in fluid mechanics because their elastic structure affects the flow, while the flow also affects the structure. Prof. Ivan Christov has been able to distill this complex relationship into a single mathematical expression.

Congratulations to Guillermo Paniagua, elected a 2021 Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

While sending humans into space is impressive, bringing them back safely to earth is the true accomplishment. And all crewed space capsules return the same way: by parachute. Aaron Comis is a NASA parachute engineer who works with Boeing and SpaceX to bring those astronauts home safely.

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) have become versatile tools for exploring the seas. But they can be disruptive to the environment and they operate for only a few hours before needing to recharge their batteries. Nina Mahmoudian is studying an alternative: underwater gliders, which operate silently and can autonomously roam the seas for months at a time.

Congratulations to our Distinguished Engineering Alumni award winners, Angela Barbee (MSME '88), Juan Manuel de Bedout (BSME '94, MSME '96, PhD '00), and Manahar Shah (MSME '68).